Recipe Friday 1/18: Healthier Homemade Meatballs

So one of my New Year's resolutions was to cut back on my red meat intake. It's not super hard, but when you crave certain meals... like spaghetti and meatballs, it's difficult to replace red meat with something else. Well I challenged myself to make a delicious turkey/pork meatball to serve with my pasta. I also made my own tomato sauce from scratch, but I didn't write the recipe down, so I only have the meatball one to share with you. You can choose a nice jar of sauce from the store to compliment your healthy meatballs, and you can even opt out of the semolina flour pasta for something like a quinoa based pasta and truly make a healthy meal out of it. Open a nice bottle of barbera, or chianti and pretend that you are in Italy, only eating food that is slightly better for you! And as always... Happy Cooking.

Turkey and Pork Meatballs
3/4 lb ground turkey thighs
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 cup fresh or dried bread, small chop (or bread crumbs)
1 egg yolk
1 tspn black pepper
2 tspn Salted Rosemary salt
1-2 tspn italian herb blend
2 sprigs fresh thyme, just the leaves, chopped fine
1-2 tblspns olive oil

* mix all of the ingredients together until blended together. Roll into whatever size meatballs you would like (i made 10 medium size meatballs). Put on a baking sheet and place in the fridge for 30 min, this helps keep their shape.
* In a pot, heat oil, add meatballs from fridge, we are just browning the outside of these here, not cooking all the way through. Brown all sides, and remove and place on a clean plate.
* In the same pot, pour enough sauce to cover the bottom of the pot, and then add the meatballs back in, and fill the pot with remaining tomato sauce. Bring to a boil, and then turn down to a simmer, and allow to cook for another 45 min, this time may very depending on the size of the meatballs. You are cooking the meatballs through at this point, so the longer the better, and the more flavor with be drawn into the sauce.
* serve over pasta that you have cooed according to the package and enjoy with fresh parmesan cheese! yum!